Police from the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills are looking for a burglar who allegedly broke into four commercial establishments on or near Queens Boulevard last month.
The one-man crime spree began at 3:14 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, when the suspect broke through the front door of a nail salon at 102-07 67th Drive just north of Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills. Once inside, the perpetrator removed approximately $400 from the cash register before riding away on a bicycle in an unknown direction.
The burglar broke into a tailor shop on Queens Boulevard near 112th Street just before 3 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 20, but left empty-handed on an electric scooter. The following morning, the suspect targeted Knish Nosh, a neighborhood favorite since 1952, located at 98-104 Queens Blvd. on Monday, Jan. 20. The perp rode to the shop on an electric scooter and broke in through the front door just after 2:30 a.m. He left with just $35 from the cash register and rode away westbound on Queens Boulevard towards Rego Park, where he struck again about 40 minutes later at the Rego Center Mall. This time, he forcibly entered 61-01 Junction Blvd. and removed $800 from a cash register. He rode off in an unknown direction.
Investigators determined that the same man broke into two more commercial establishments in Brooklyn during the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 22. At 12:25 a.m., he broke into a restaurant in the confines of the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick and stole $90 from a cash register before running off westbound on Troutman Street. Three hours later, he showed up in the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and forcibly entered a fast food restaurant located at 360 Throop Ave through the front door. Once inside, he took $250 from a cash register and $1,250 worth of property before running off in an unknown direction. No one was injured during the half-dozen burglaries.
The NYPD released surveillance images of the suspect from his first two Forest Hills break-ins. He wore a white hooded winter coat over a white hoodie, a black face covering, black pants, dark sneakers, and a black backpack.
Anyone with information regarding this burglary spree is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Through Feb. 16, the 112th Precinct has reported 32 burglaries so far in 2025, twenty more than the dozen reported at the same point last year, an increase of 166.7%, according to the most recent CompStat report.
